Tag Archives: bicycles

A New Jersey democrat is using her political muscle to force citizens across the state to register their bicycles with the Division of Motor Vehicles. The ridiculous maneuver would help the state offset its $10 billion budget deficit by enforcing a $10 per license plate fee and fines up to $100 for those, including children, caught riding unregistered bikes.

Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex) said balancing the state’s budget isn’t her motivation for the outlandish proposal; it’s protecting senior citizens from getting run over by kids on bikes.

Affixing license plates to every bicycle in the state would help these vulnerable senior citizens identify and rattle off the license plate numbers from the kids’ bikes to the police, ensuring the rascals are brought to justice, says Tucker.

Tucker’s proposal has been met with opposition by a diverse group of interests including bicyclists, environmentalists, business owners and even her own colleagues in the State House.

“That’s an outrage, for sure,” said Paige Hiemier, vice-president of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition. “Basically, it’s outrageous for a number of reasons, and most of them are: Who is the legislation aimed at? Who’s going to administer it? How are they going to pay for it? Who’s going to stop the bicyclists and check their registration?”

Despite a lack of statistics to support his argument, a nanny state activist wants babies banned from biking with their parents.

Citing a wide array of scary scenarios that would make any parent cringe with fear, a ‘concerned’ citizen has petitioned city officials in a Boston, Mass. suburb to prohibit parents from taking their tiny tots on bicycle rides. According to Brookline resident Seymour Ziskend, city officials are encouraging “child endangerment” unless they enact his proposed ban on baby bike seats and tow-behind buggies.

Ziskend is a local public access television host and businessman specializing in “selling, appraising, designing, outfitting, financing, and renovating restaurants,” so he knows a thing or two about bicycle safety. He prepared a report for Brookline’s town council outlining his concerns and rationale for preventing parents from bicycle riding with their toddlers, WickedLocal.com reports:

His article would prohibit bicyclists from carrying or transporting “babies or children of any age” on bicycles, even with the use of baskets, bicycle seats, tandems, carriers, or any other attached carrier.

He cited state laws that require safety belts for passengers of motor vehicles, but asked “What law safeguards children, babies or adults riding as passengers on bikes?” He also called it “sheer negligence” for bicyclists who carry children in such a manner.

WickedLocal.com notes a report from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) showing 716 bicyclists were killed in traffic accidents in 2008, 23 of which the victims were between the ages of 5 and 15. That is a wide range in age for nationwide deaths of children involved in unspecified bicycle deaths, and while unfortunate, fails to prove Ziskend’s argument for parents ultimately being responsible for endangering their young children whether in bike seats or tow-behind buggies.

WickedLocal.com does not include the informational tidbit from the NHTSA report that states:

Alcohol involvement — either for the driver or the pedalcyclist — was reported in more than one-third (37%) of the traffic crashes that resulted in pedalcyclist fatalities in 2008. In 31 percent of the crashes, either the driver or the pedalcyclist was reported to have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher. Lower alcohol levels (BAC .01 to .07 g/dL) were reported in an additional 8 percent of crashes. Over one-fourth (28%) of the pedalcyclists killed had a BAC of .01 g/dL or higher, and nearly one-fourth (23%) had a BAC of .08 g/dL or higher.

Drunk drivers, drunk bikers, drunk parents, drunk underage teenagers … you get the picture. They’re likely part of the equation, too, resulting in the deaths of 23 children between the ages of 5 and 15, making Ziskend’s argument even more irrelevant.

Contact Brookline’s Town Selectmen and tell them to oppose Ziskend’s petition to ban baby bike seats and tow-along carriers that not even NHTSA data can prove present a “child endangerment” issue. Or, sound-off below if you think we are flawed in our judgment on the proposed ban.

Here’s the first edition of our new daily news feature where we will be spotlighting big government bureaucrats doing what they do best — dictating, bullying and intimidating. We encourage you to submit comments to the authors online and/or send Letters to the Editors to voice your opposition to these atrocities so that others may be encouraged to defend their freedom, rights and liberties against the nanny state.